GRAIL Mission Goes Out With a Bang

Jane J. Lee

On Friday, December 14, NASA sent their latest moon mission into a death spiral. Rocket burns nudged GRAIL probes Ebb and Flow into a new orbit designed to crash them into the side of a mountain near the moon's north pole today at around 2:28 p.m. Pacific standard time. NASA named the crash site after late astronaut Sally Ride, America's first woman in space.

Although the mountain is located on the nearside of the moon, there won't be any pictures because the area will be shadowed, according to a statement from NASA' Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Originally sent to map the moon's gravity field, Ebb and Flow join a long list of man-made objects that have succumbed to a deadly lunar attraction. Decades of exploration have left a trail of debris intentionally crashed, accidentally hurtled, or deliberately left on the moon's surface. Some notable examples include:

Ranger 4 - Part of NASA's first attempt to snap close-up pictures of the moon, the Ranger program did not start off well. Rangers 1 through 6 all failed, although Ranger 4, launched April 23, 1962, did make it as far as the moon. Sadly, onboard computer failures kept number 4 from sending back any pictures before it crashed. (See a map of all artifacts on the moon.)

Fallen astronaut statue - This 3.5-inch-tall aluminum figure commemorates the 14 astronauts and cosmonauts who had died prior to the Apollo 15 mission. That crew left it behind in 1971, and NASA wasn't aware of what the astronauts had done until a post-flight press conference.

Lunar yard sale - Objects jettisoned by Apollo crews over the years include a television camera, earplugs, two "urine collection assemblies," and tools that include tongs and a hammer. Astronauts left them because they needed to shed weight in order to make it back to Earth on their remaining fuel supply, said archivist Colin Fries of the NASA History Program Office.

Luna 10 - A Soviet satellite that crashed after successfully orbiting the moon, Luna 10 was the first man-made object to orbit a celestial body other than Earth. Its Russian controllers had programmed it to broadcast the Communist anthem "Internationale" live to the Communist Party Congress on April 4, 1966. Worried that the live broadcast could fail, they decided to broadcast a recording of the satellite's test run the night before—a fact they revealed 30 years later.

Radio Astronomy Explorer B - The U.S. launched this enormous instrument, also known as Explorer 49, into a lunar orbit in 1973. At 600 feet (183 meters) across, it's the largest man-made object to enter orbit around the moon. Researchers sent it into its lunar orbit so it could take measurements of the planets, the sun, and the galaxy free from terrestrial radio interference. NASA lost contact with the satellite in 1977, and it's presumed to have crashed into the moon.

(Learn about lunar exploration.)

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Newtown Boy Remembered as 'Old Soul'

Dec 17, 2012 6:02pm

Family of Daniel Barden, who died in the Connecticut school shootings. From left, his brother James, 12, and his parents, Mark and Jackie. (Image Credit: ABC)

Though he was only in first grade, Daniel Barden was very much an “old soul,” his family said today.  He was one of the 20 children who died Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

At the age of 4, he displayed an empathy for others remarkable for a child so young.  It didn’t go unnoticed — teachers chose Daniel to be paired with a special education student at his school.

PHOTOS: Connecticut Shooting Victims

His mother, Jackie Barden, said she was always struck by “how unusual he was.”

“Our neighbors always said, ‘He’s like an old soul,’” Barden said during an interview on “Katie.”

He carried that kindness with him as he got older.

“He would hold doors open for adults all the time,” said his father, Mark Barden.

He laughed, remembering the times he’d be “halfway” across a parking lot and see his son still holding a door for strangers.

“Our son had so much love to give to this world,” Barden said. “He was supposed to have a whole lifetime of bringing that light to the world.”

Complete Coverage: Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

Daniel had two older siblings, James, age 12, and Natalie, age 10, who doted on their little brother.

“He was just so sweet and kind and thoughtful,” James said.

On Friday, 7-year-old Daniel, who was one of the 20 young victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School, woke up early.  He played foosball with his mother.

As usual, Daniel won, she said. The score was 10 to 8.

His father also taught him how to play “Jingle Bells” on the piano that morning.

“We did a lot in that half hour,” he said.

A celebration of Daniel’s life will be held Tuesday at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church. A funeral is scheduled for Wednesday.

SHOWS: Good Morning America

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Gun-rights advocates under attack after school shooting

The call came Friday night, as Americans were just beginning the struggle to make sense of one of the most horrific mass shootings in a long history of them.

The anonymous caller was angry, and he was looking for Philip Van Cleave, who heads the Virginia Citizens Defense League. He cursed Van Cleave for his pro-gun advocacy, challenged Van Cleave to sell his weapons, and called him a coward.

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N. Korea mourns late leader

SEOUL: North Korea on Monday mourned the death one year ago of leader Kim Jong-Il, with its rocket scientists taking pride of place at a special memorial ceremony led by his son and successor Kim Jong-Un.

Kim Jong-Il died of a heart attack on December 17, 2011, although his death was only announced two days later.

Monday's ceremony, attended by hundreds of top party and military cadres, was held in the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang, which houses the embalmed bodies of Kim Jong-Il and his father and founding president Kim Il-Sung.

In the city's main square, people left floral tributes at the foot of giant statues of the two Kims, with state media saying at least 750,000 mourners had paid their respects on Sunday alone.

The official mourning -- broadcast live on state TV -- saw Kim Jong-Un and his wife Ri Sol-Ju lead rows of officials in bowing deeply to two giant statues of his father and grandfather inside the memorial hall.

The stone-faced officials clad in black were led by goose-stepping soldiers carrying a big floral tribute with a ribbon message reading, "The great comrades Kim Jong-Il and Kim Il-Sung stay with us forever."

A group of scientists who worked on the North's successful long-range rocket launch last week were among the first to pay tribute.

"These are scientists who made great contributions to the successful launch of our Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite and helped showcase the nation's scientific technologies to the whole world," the TV announcer said.

The Kim family has ruled the isolated, impoverished but nuclear-armed nation for more than six decades with an iron fist and a pervasive personality cult.

- AFP/ck

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Railways to adopt PPP mode for modernization: Bansal

SANGRUR: Union railway minister Pawan Bansal said on Sunday that public private partnership (PPP) mode would be adopted for modernizing and upgrading the railway infrastructure.

The minister, who was in Sangrur and Barnala districts of Punjab to lay the foundation stones for new railway projects, said that Rs 1.10 lakh crore would be generated through PPP mode for implementing the revamping plan.

"Railways is failing in mobilizing the required funds through internal sources. The annual plan for the ongoing fiscal has been cut short by over Rs 4,000 crore and the plan outlay has been reduced from earlier Rs 60,100 crore to Rs 55,900 crore," he said.

Bansal, who belongs to Tapa town of Barnala district, said, "The railways has chalked out ambitious plans for doubling the tracks, electrification, laying of new railway lines and manufacture of coaches in the next five years. All this will be done on PPP mode."

Bansal said that railways will need about 30,000 more coaches in the coming years and for this, all the states have been asked to provide land on which railways will set up coach factories.

"Both Punjab and Haryana have already shown keen interest in the plan," said Bansal.

He said that presently, there are 14,000 unmanned railway crossings in India and the railways is inching towards making these manned in a phased manner.

Bansal said that the Kolkata-Ludhiana and Delhi-Mumbai freight corridors will be completed during the next five years.

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Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National Geographic

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.

A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles in Earth's atmosphere.

After one particularly amazing show, he wrote on YouTube, "The lights were dancing, rolling, and twisting, and at times looked like they were close enough to touch!" (Watch his time-lapse video of the northern lights.)

Published December 14, 2012

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Photos: Conn. Community in Sorrow After School Shooting

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Obama picks Kerry for top diplomatic post: TV

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has chosen Senator John Kerry to succeed Hillary Clinton as US secretary of state, news networks CNN and ABC reported Saturday.

CNN cited a Democratic source who had spoken to Kerry, while ABC mentioned unnamed sources. Asked for comment by AFP, the White House did not immediately confirm the reports, but Kerry is seen as a frontrunner for the role.

The defeated 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, Kerry is currently head of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations committee.

On Thursday, Obama's ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, withdrew her name from consideration for the secretary of state post, effectively elevating Kerry to the prohibitive favorite.

Rice had come under fire over controversial statements about the deadly September 11 attack on a US mission in Libya, and some Republican lawmakers had vowed to block her path to becoming top diplomat.

- AFP/ir

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Smaller towns like Shimla can nourish book reading habit: Prajwal Parajuly

SHIMLA: Young Indian author Prajwal Parajuly, who has earned the sobriquet of "harbinger of resurgence of short stories" in literary circles in South Asian literature and created a sensation in the previous year when he became the youngest Indian author to land an international multi-country two-book deal with a renowned publication in London, is adding a creative warmth in the freezing hills of Shimla, as he gets ready with the third launch of his debut collection of short stories, "The Gurkha's Daughter" in the Queen of Hills on Sunday.

Parajuly, who deliberated his experiences of creative writing at the two-day Shimla literary festival, which began here on Saturday, told TOI, "Readers and writers are present everywhere, be it a big metro or a small town. So why not a place like Shimla for book launch, may be someone gets inspired to write. Smaller towns like Shimla and my home state Sikkim are fertile grounds to re-cultivate the book reading habits and refurbish the creative streak among young minds."

On his second visit to Shimla, Parajuly said, "There is no dearth of talent in smaller places and Shimla has been a repository of creative element, be it drama or writing. The book launch is going to happen at the famed historic Gaiety theatre, which in itself is an epitome of drama." The "Gurkha's Daughter" has a story set in a hill station of Himachal also, in Manali, titled "Let Sleeping Dogs Life," he said. "May be, readers can find something about Shimla in his upcoming novel, which also centres around Nepali speaking people," Parajuly said.

Asked about that the term "Gurkha" has come up as a heavily loaded term with several undertones, he replied, "The book is a fictional writing and I never wrote it with this intention. If, in a way, it is dispelling the myths related to the term and is eradicating the social ills related to it, it is a positive sign. It is good that people are getting to know more about Gurkhas." There is also a place called "Gurkha" existing in Nepal, he added.

After Shimla, the next place on cards for launch is Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), apart from big places like Bangalore and across the globe, including London, Sydney, Johannesburg, Cambridge and Oxford, he said. Speaking about his book of short stories that chronicles the lives of Nepali speaking diaspora across places, Parajuly said, "I chose the topic of Nepali-speaking people as writing about a world which I knew very well and am familiar with was easy."

Asked about the title of the book "The Gurkha's Daughter," he said it has been taken from one of the short stories and was decided after much deliberation. "Earlier, we had decided upon titles like Himalayan Sons, From Himalayas, etc. but the Gurkha title captured the essence of the collection of stories," he said. The response, sales and reviews of the book so far have been phenomenal and the response in Shimla before the launch too has been quite encouraging, he added.

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Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National Geographic

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.

A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles in Earth's atmosphere.

After one particularly amazing show, he wrote on YouTube, "The lights were dancing, rolling, and twisting, and at times looked like they were close enough to touch!" (Watch his time-lapse video of the northern lights.)

Published December 14, 2012

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